Execs from Madrigal, Cirius and Axcella say the FDA’s complete response letter is specific to shortcomings of Intercept’s OCA – and leaves the race to be first to market wide open again.

Public Company Edition: Moderna leveraged its all-time high stock price to raise $1.34bn on the same day it reported data from a Phase I trial of its COVID-19 vaccine. Several other companies also took advantage of biopharma’s rising value.

Flagship Pioneering raised $1.1bn to fund life science companies emerging from Flagship Labs. ARCH, another frequent start-up co-founder, raised two funds totaling $1.46bn to back early-stage biotech.

Emerging Company Profile: Axcella uses Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) amino acids to create drug candidates for hepatic encephalopathy, NASH and other diseases.